Mumbai: SBI General Insurance Company Ltd, one of India’s fastest growing general insurance companies conducted a study on women’s perception towards health insurance beyond the metro cities on the occasion of International Women’s Day. The study aimed at finding out women’s involvement in financial decisions, their perception towards medical emergencies and investment towards it.

 

Below are some of the interesting trends from the study:

• Women from tier II cities are more financially involved as compared to tier III cities

• Higher number of working women from older age group are more involved in financial decision making

• Older age group have higher involvement towards insurance and fixed deposits

• Consumers from tier II cities prefer to save for child education as compared to tier III cities that are more inclined towards medical emergencies

• People buying health insurance cover the immediate family

• Awareness towards critical illness is 65% while only 18% actually buy the policy and awareness is higher amongst the younger age group

• Higher number of older age group consumers have done medical check-up only while buying health insurance policy or as advised by the doctor

• Common lifestyle diseases that women in small towns are aware of – Cancer, Breast Cancer, Renal, Diabetes, Blood Pressure, Obesity, Osteoporosis, Asthma

• Women realise that Breast Cancer is the biggest threat but need for regular check up to screen cancer is never considered

• Women generally do not talk about their diseases / ailments especially which are related to menopause

A study conducted by SBI General on claims of the last 6 months showed that out of the total claims received only 35% claims were made by women, of which only 17.8% of females who faced hospitalization initiated the purchase of health insurance on their own. The primary data also captured the average stay of women for hospitalization was about 4 days. This could be due to the possibility that the household chores and daily running is still largely dependent on women.

Majority of the claims reported were against infectious and parasitic diseases (23.9%) followed by diseases related to digestive system (15.5%) and diseases of the genitourinary system (8.7%).

Gunjan Ghai, SVP Marketing and Product Development, SBI General Insurance said, “Women are the pillar of strength for their family and hence it is important for them to prioritize their health. Often they neglect their health as they are dependent on their family members for financial assistance arising out of medical emergencies. It is imperative for them to be aware of their health needs and to have a health insurance cover that will cover them adequately in case of any unforseen medical emergency.”

He further added, “As the study also depicts, fewer women have health insurance, which shows that they are either dependent on their employer’s policy or family floater and may not have an adequate cover for themselves. Given the immense pressure that women go through on a day to day basis, it is critical for them to have a health insurance that includes a cover for women related diseases.”

The study also depicted awareness levels of Critical Illness policy among the women. 65% of the women were not aware of such policies and only 12 % have taken a critical health insurance policy.